ARmy Rumour SErvice

Originally Posted by mortars2cg

I remember reading about the aftermath of the battle and how the bodies were striped and left to rot. The bones wre removed from some of the bodies and used for bonemeal.

Also ,were medals issued for the first time after the whole campaign ?.

There used to be a good going trade in Waterloo teeth for the making of dental prothesis for the rich.
Waterloo Teeth

[QUOTE=Tremaine;4136701]Order of Battle is here according to britishbattles.com The Battle of Waterloo Allied order of battle

Company of Jaegers - bet they were smart

Originally Posted by mortars2cg

I remember reading about the aftermath of the battle and how the bodies were striped and left to rot. The bones wre removed from some of the bodies and used for bonemeal.

Also ,were medals issued for the first time after the whole campaign ?.

Yes, the Peninsula veterans were a bit put out that their earlier efforts hadn't been similarly acknowledged. I read that grizzled old hands would rip the Waterloo medal from callow youths' chests.

Originally Posted by seaweed

As to Les Inavlides, there must be something vaguely disgusting about the Fr erecting an enormous monument to a loser whose only lasting achievement was to achieve the deaths of hundreds of thousands to no purpose whatsoever.

Perhaps thats why the Frogs and Sweatys get on so well?

I always thought the film was a bit weak showing exploding cannon balls before they were iin use!

There's a mega diorama of the battle upstairs at The Royal Green Jackets museum at Peninsula Barracks, Winchester. Well worth a visit. As far as I remember the model, which is seemingly packed to bursting with tiny model troops, horses and guns, only has a tenth (I think) of the numbers present at the battle.

Originally Posted by ugly

I always thought the film was a bit weak showing exploding cannon balls before they were iin use!

Not an expert, and the pyrotechnics seem to have been done with an eye on how good they look on the screen, but I thought shrapnel had come into service by then?

The analysis of the battle by Harry Smith (Rifles officer, ex staff officer and nutter extraordinaire) was that Wellington was leading far too many second battalions and raw recruits to balance out the seasoned soldiers (mostly because of the American Campaigns), so Wellington could not do anything too structured or complex. At the same time he describes Napoleon as using none of his own tactical brilliance, instead just using patchy and unsupported individual attacks.

Anyone interested his autobiography (where he misses out everything after Napoleon as uninteresting even though he ended up in later life as Governor of South Africa until the politicians back here decided he was doing too well), it is well worth a read - The Autobiography of Sir Harry Smith: 1787-1819: Amazon.co.uk: Harry Smith, G.C.Moore Smith, Philip Haythornthwaite: Books

The film shows Napoleon falling apart, which would have explained why he didn't bring his usual genius to bear (although it doesn't show Wellington's situation). The other reason could just as easily have been that Napoleon no longer trusted his officers enough to work well with them having been betrayed by them once - but it is a film, so they had to use one interpretation or another. The bit I love best is the incredible aerial shot of the British squares formed up and gradually disintegrating and moving under attack.